What Is To Keep Me From Being Baptized?

A Question from a Nonnormative Individual

Luke 6:20-31 | Acts 8:26-40

In today’s passage from Acts, Luke provides the Church with a story, the details of which have not yet been widely and fully disseminated or understood. It’s a powerful story! It’s often told as yet another example of the gospel being available to those cultures well beyond Israel. Even before Peter’s big epiphany that we’ll read soon enough, through Philip’s leadership and willingness, God expands the bounds of the Church in ways that are prophetic and deeply challenging still yet even to many, if not most Christians today.

To be clear, a eunuch is someone - a male - whose genitals have been removed. It is likely this Ethiopian eunuch’s penis was removed so as not to be a threat and/or temptation to the Queen, being so close to her in service on a regular basis. It’s a cruel notion to us today. But Jesus also tells us that there are other reasons people become eunuchs. He said they may have been born that way. And…he said that some eunuchs make the choice themselves in service to the Kingdom of Heaven.¹ He also notes that this would be hard for some people to accept. (No kidding, Jesus!)

The Ethiopian eunuch asks two pointed and - for us today - unsettling questions of Philip:

“Without someone to guide me, how could I [understand the word of God]?”

…and…

“What is to prevent me from being baptized?”

Philip’s example to the Church is quick and determined. The eunuch stopped the chariot and Philip got out with him and baptized him immediately. No baptism or membership class. No required statement about the man’s gender identity or sexual identity.

He just baptized him.

And the eunuch rejoiced.

—

What an appropriate parallel passage we have in Luke’s gospel. Luke’s presentation of the beatitudes is shorter than Matthews, but no less sharply shaping of the Kingdom of God. This stuff is for those otherwise neglected and dismissed by society: the poor, the hungry, the grieving. The hated, the rejected, the insulted, and the condemned. Jesus is clear in the beginning of his sermon on the plain: “Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.”

What is keeping people from being baptized?

Maybe it’s the Church itself.

As Jesus says, “May those who can accept it…do so.”

---

Luke 6:20-31

Jesus raised his eyes to his disciples and said:

“Happy are you who are poor,
    because God’s kingdom is yours.
Happy are you who hunger now,
    because you will be satisfied.
Happy are you who weep now,
    because you will laugh.

Happy are you when people hate you, reject you, insult you, and condemn your name as evil because of the Human One. Rejoice when that happens! Leap for joy because you have a great reward in heaven. Their ancestors did the same things to the prophets.

But how terrible for you who are rich,
    because you have already received your comfort.
How terrible for you who have plenty now,
    because you will be hungry.
How terrible for you who laugh now,
    because you will mourn and weep.
How terrible for you when all speak well of you.
    Their ancestors did the same things to the false prophets.

“But I say to you who are willing to hear: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one as well. If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either. Give to everyone who asks and don’t demand your things back from those who take them. Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.

Acts 8:26-40

An angel from the Lord spoke to Philip, “At noon, take the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) So he did. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian man was on his way home from Jerusalem, where he had come to worship. He was a eunuch and an official responsible for the entire treasury of Candace. (Candace is the title given to the Ethiopian queen.) He was reading the prophet Isaiah while sitting in his carriage. The Spirit told Philip, “Approach this carriage and stay with it.”

Running up to the carriage, Philip heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you really understand what you are reading?”

The man replied, “Without someone to guide me, how could I?” Then he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him. This was the passage of scripture he was reading:

Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
    and like a lamb before its shearer is silent
    so he didn’t open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was taken away from him.
    Who can tell the story of his descendants
        because his life was taken from the earth?

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, about whom does the prophet say this? Is he talking about himself or someone else?” Starting with that passage, Philip proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. As they went down the road, they came to some water.

The eunuch said, “Look! Water! What would keep me from being baptized?” He ordered that the carriage halt. Both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, where Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Lord’s Spirit suddenly took Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. Philip found himself in Azotus. He traveled through that area, preaching the good news in all the cities until he reached Caesarea.

Prayer

God,

Just how wide is your Kingdom?

Help me to see your bounds, as discomforting as they may be to my own experience and desires. I’m pretty good at pointing out where others have it wrong. But it’s much more difficult to think that I might be one of the exclusionary ones.

I don’t want to be.

So help me, God.

By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.

1. Matthew 19:11-12 - [Jesus] replied, “Not everybody can accept this teaching, but only those who have received the ability to accept it. For there are eunuchs who have been eunuchs from birth. And there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by other people. And there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs because of the kingdom of heaven. Those who can accept it should accept it.”